Granpa Marsh's Wedding

Day 2 of our St. George trip started out with some swimming in the condos pool.  The kids all loved it, and Ben still does great swimming on his own.  We went back to the condo to get ready for the wedding, and found out that someone was coming to see the condo, because Lee is trying to sell it.  So, the year of selling our Riverton house set in, and we cleaned like crazy.  The house looked good by the time the people came to look at it 10 minutes later.  Luckily, we didn't have any negative impact, and the people ended up buying it. 

About this time I was not feeling good, but Eliza got a nap and we all got ready for the wedding.  The church was decorated beautifully and the wedding service was really nice.  My grandpa met Virginia off an online dating service, which I think it great.  My grandma died about a year ago, but was very sick for a long time before that.  My Grandpa Marsh is so full of energy and still works part time.  I think it will be great for him to get remarried and be able to do great things with Virginia. 

My girls and Mailie were some of the flower girls for the wedding.  They were so adorable as they all held hands and walked down the aisle, my little angels.  Ben and Nathan looked awesomely dapper in their outfits.  they had a lot of fun playing around after the marriage.  It was a fabulous weekend with family! 

Unfortunately I either got the stomach flu or was very dehydrated.  I was sick the rest of Saturday and into Sunday.  Mike and the kids had a fun time Saturday night, having a pizza picnic, and going to church.  We headed back Sunday, and I was so glad the kids all did great in the car going to and from St. George.  It was a good car trial run for Disneyland in a month.

St. George

Our St. George trip was planned because my Grandpas was getting married, but we decided to all go down early to enjoy some fun together.  We drove down and met my family at a park in St. George and had a picnic lunch and then had an easter egg hunt.  The kids did great, but there was also fun for the big kids.  My family got these great eggs filled when confetti.  We had a grand time breaking the eggs on each other, I even got my dad right on the top of the head!  We also figured out they would break great when hit with the boys baseball bats.   

Our next stop was a great hike just outside of St. George off the Leeds exit, called Red Cliffs.  The hike was about a mile, and so beautiful with multiple waterfalls and amazing little canyon.  It was perfect for the kids and they loved every minute of it.  Eliza was the one who suprised me, she walked almost the entire way.  She had her walking stick and just kept going, not wanting to be held by anyone.  On the way back down, when she was getting tired, she would just sit and play with dirt or rocks until she was ready to go again.  Nicole was amazing and hiked the whole way with Isabelle on her back, who was really happy the whole time. 

We headed back into St. George and let the kids play at the river water park.  Eliza has no fear of anything and was running around having a great time, but keeping Mike and I busy trying to keep track of her.  We then went and had a yummy mexican dinner, where all the kids were going wild, so I'm sure that restaurant was glad when we left.  My boss let us use his condo to stay in St. George, which was so wonderful.  It was a huge place and the kids got their own bedrooms, and actually slept really well!

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is so exciting! Especially at our house where Larry the Leprachaun like to play tricks on us.   The day started with Hailey's milk turning green.  Then Ben's water magically turned green.  At this point my kids decided to make a leprachaun trap so that they could catch the leprachaun and get all his gold.  They made an awesome leprachaun house and put food and furniture inside.  But, Larry was faster and stole the food but didn't get trapped.  Larry left a note for a hunt that took the kids all over the house, and even included them having to clean their rooms.  At the end were fabulous games for each of them and a 2 dollar bill.

It is also my Uncle Troy's birthday, so we got to celebrate his 50th birthday that night.  It was a great party with great food and lots of family and friends.

We'll have to see what Larry the Leprachaun does next year. 

Aquarium

We are big aquarium fans!  We have had a membership almost since they opened.  It is such a fun place to go and so nice because it's close.  We even are donating a brick with our kids names on it to the new aquarium being built next year.  I like it as much as my kids do, maybe because I love the ocean.  Our chances of going scuba diving are far and few between, so it's fun to see all the ocean animals.  This aquarium visit was for cute little Simon Bower's first birthday.  He had no idea what was going on, but seemed to like it.  My kids had a great time going around with their friends.  After the aquarium we went over to the Bower's family house and had a fun barbecue. 

Snowshoeing

Mike went on a snowshoeing adventure with his scouts after I got home from work.  They had made their own snowshoes at an activity and wanted to try them out.  Most of their snowshoes fell apart within the first 10 steps, but a few of the ones made of tennis rackets survived.  They had a fun time, but even more importantly this is when Mike first used his new camera.  I'm looking forward to some fabulous pictures in the future. 

My Crazy, Silly Eliza

Oh, how I love my little Eliza.  I was giving her a bath and stepped out of the bathroom for a minute, and came back to find her like this!  She loves playing on this ledge. 
Eliza is in this fiercely independent stage right now. She wants to do everything on her own! She wants to change her own diaper, get dressed head to toe including shoes and socks, walk everywhere without holding any ones hand, pour her own cereal and milk, etc, etc. The problem with this independence is if I try to help her she throws a big fit. Also, everything she does takes a lot of time, so it is really hard when we are trying to go somewhere. I know it is probably a good thing in the long term, but it is really hard to deal with right now. She is mostly a happy girl, but watch out when she is grumpy. She loves wearing dresses, and often requests to wear dresses in the middle of the week so she can go to church. She loves going to church, which is so cute, and seems to like hanging out with me in nursery. Eliza loves being outside, and is happiest if we are outside all day. She says anything and everything now, which is so cute in her little way of saying things. She loves playing with Ben and Hailey and they are such good siblings to her. Hailey is definitely my girly-girl, but I can't decide on Eliza yet. She definitely likes her dolls and dressing up, but she has her own spunkiness, we'll see.

The Valentine Day Attack!

My kids have asked multiple times for silly string, so I gave them all a can at Christmas.  We had yet to use them, and I knew Mike would be home any minute.  So, we rounded up the silly string and crouched down waiting to attack Mike the minute he got home.  He walked through the door and bam, was hit by three cans of silly string!  Mike started screaming playfully, and we kept the silly string coming.  Ben and Hailey loved every second, but Eliza had no idea what was going on.  She started crying and was so worried about Mike.  She just kept crying and was wondering why in the world we would be attacking her dad.  It was great fun though!

So, I haven't played with silly string for a long time and forgot how slimy it is.  It took forever to clean up!  We kept finding tiny pieces of silly string, and I found a big piece weeks later.  Next time the silly string fight will be outside.  Happy Valentines Day!

Mike and I were able to celebrate Valentines the Friday before.  We went out to dinner and then our area has an adult dance.  It was fun to go dancing, and remember our first date (fourteen years ago) at the Naval Ball.  There was a couple at the dance who had been married 65 years and were one of the best dancers out on the floor. I hope Mike and I are there at our 65 year anniversary.  On our second Navy dance, Mike had to do the Chicken Dance along with all the other new Navy recruits, it was the best!  I tried to get the DJ to play the Chicken Dance at the Valentines Dance, but he said he wouldn't go there. 

Bowling

We had a fun bowling birthday party for Boston, who is the son of Mike's cousin Jenny.  His Aunt Elise was also in town, and Grandpa Lamar and Mae also came.   Eliza wouldn't get off my lap most of the night, so Grandpa Lamar was really nice and helped Ben and Hailey bowl.  They had a lot of fun!  I'm really excited that Mike bought a new camera so we can get better indoor pictures than these turned out.

Hailey is a Sleeping Bear

Hailey's preschool did this adorable sleeping bear play.  Hailey was so excited about it!  They got their parts a few weeks earlier, and she was the sleeping bear.  She wouldn't let me see her part, but practiced in secret with Mike, so that I would be suprised when I saw the play.  It was absolutely adorable!  Hailey's preschool teacher is amazing, and school is her favorite thing to go to, even better than dance and soccer.  The kids were so good and it was so fun to see them do their play.  Hailey was an awesome sleeping bear, and remembered her line when she woke up!  Hailey has done really well in preschool learning her letters and their sounds.  She just started reading Bob books and I am so proud of her.

Eliza is Two!

I have a two year old!!!  My family taught Eliza how to use her fingers to say I'm two at her birthday party.  She caught right on, so whenever you ask her how old she is, she puts up those two cute fingers and says "I two".  I just love my cute little Eliza and her fabulous smiles. 

We brought up Eliza's present on her birthday and she happily said, "oh my bike, my bike present, thank you for my bike present"!  She was so excited.  It is a push bike that we bought her and hopefully she will be as easy to teach riding the bike as Hailey was. 

Happy Chinese New Year

The first and second grade classes at Ben's school celebrated Chinese New Year with a Chinese assembly.  I took Hailey and Eliza with me.  We all enjoyed hearing the kids recite a story and sing Chinese songs.  After the kids were done preforming a Chinese Dragon came through the crowd and the kids loved that.  The assembly was about an hour and the students did about 15-20 minutes of it.  After they were done the principal got up and talked for the rest of the time about a trip she had made to China the previous year and showed her pictures.  Some of it was interesting, but as a parent I would have rather seen more of the kids! 

Ben loves learnning Chinese and is doing amazing.  He can count to any number, he knows lots of different songs, he know how to read and draw a lot of Chinese symbols.  I am so glad he is in this program it is such a great opportunity.  It is so crazy to think he will be fluent in Chinese by the time he is done with High School.  He still tells everyone he is going to China on his mission, and I hope he does!  What is even crazier is that Hailey will be learning Chinese in 2 years, I'll have 2 little Chinese talkers in my house!

Eliza's Family Birthday Party

Here is Hailey reading our 2010 blog book.  This is the reason I keep blogging!  My kids love reading stories about them, and I forget so quickly things we have done. 

Happy January/February Birthdays!  We had a combined Birthday party at our house for Nathan, Bri, and Eliza.  We played some silly games with the kids and had a great dinner and fabulous desserts.  Eliza loved her clothes that she got from my family.  After she put on her new swimsuit she was strutting all over the place.  Her other favorite outfit is her "rainbow bug" outfit.  She always requests to wear her rainbow bug pants and shirt. 

Dresser Refinished

This is a project that started last summer.  While Mike was gone at scout camp, I went shopping with my mom and sister.  We found this awesome dresser at the DI.  I have never refinished or painted or done anything to any furniture before.  I actually really like the dresser before and thought it had a lot of character.  I had no idea how to even start, so of course I googled it and got some ideas.  A couple of the drawers were broken on the inside, and originally I was just going to leave them broken.  But, I got motivated and fixed them all by myself!  We sanded it down and found some fun turquoise and green paint.  We mixed those together, and went crazy on the dresser.  I had my kids help and paint crazy turquoise all over.  Then I covered it with the turquoise/green mixture.  I was planning on doing a couple of solid layers of paint and then sanding some off for an antique look.  But, when we got done I liked that the wood had absorbed a lot of the paint, and I didn't end up sanding it at all.  We use this dresser every day, it holds our wii remotes and other great stuff.

My next project was my picture frames.  I saw a similar setup on pinterest and really liked it, so I thought I would change it up a little.  I got these frames and painted them all.  It was a bit tricky hanging them all so they were touching.  After a few tries, we ended up duct taping the backs of them all together and then hanging them on the wall.  I am so not a crafty or decorating person, so I was very proud of the outcome!

Pizza Fun with Friends

This is what happens when I'm at work!  Mike had over Ben and Hailey's friends Ty and Ava.  They had a great time playing and eating pizza and shakes.  We love living in Daybreak, their are so many good friends around to play with our kids!

Just an update on my crazy health of 2011.  I am normally a very healthy person, I only remember taking antibiotics twice in my life.  Working as a pharmacist part time for the last 8 years, I think I am immune to most things.

In June, right before we were supposed to go to Lake Powell I got sick.  It was different than I had ever felt.  I was dizzy, nauseous, and extremely fatigued.  I figured I had something weird and waited a few weeks for it to go away.  When I wasn't getting any better I went to my Dr. July 5th.  He ran all my blood tests and didn't find anything, so he said it might be an inner ear problem, and if it didn't go away I should see a specialist.  By the time I got my blood test results I was starting to improve so I decided not to pursue it, but I was sick for about 6 weeks.  I was healthy through the last of August and the first half of September, then all my symptoms started coming back.  I am not good at going to the Dr. and I figured it was another ear infection, so I waited it out a couple of weeks before finding another Dr. and making an appointment.  I went to see the new Dr. on November 8th, she was great and really thorough.  She told me she wanted to do a strep test, this one threw me off guard.  I asked her why, because my throat wasn't hurting at all.  She had seen a few cases and had been talking with some of the members of the national CDC.  Apparently a crazy strain of strep started going through the Salt Lake Valley, it was the only place they had seen it.  It caused my exact symptoms; nausea, dizziness, fatigue.  We did a strep test, and it was positive.  I was really happy to have something wrong with me that could be actually treated.  So I started a two week course of antibiotics.  I wish that was the end of the story but shortly after I ended the antibiotics all my symptoms came back again.  So, into the Dr. again on November 28th, and yep I was strep positive again.  I was lucky and got a antibiotic resistant strain.  So, it was on to the crazy antibiotics, fluoroquinolones.  I did a two week course of those, which was not fun.  But, luckily my strep was finally gone, and I was actually able to enjoy Christmas and all it's fun! 
I was joking around with Mike that I have not been healthy for more than three weeks at a time since June, and was so glad that I was finally better.  Well, I spoke too soon!  The beginning of January I got sick yet again.  This time it was a little bit different.  I had the dizziness and fatigue, but no nauseousness.  By this time I am just so sick of being sick and going to the Dr.'s.  So I waited until January 26th and then went to see the Dr.  This time luckily it wasn't strep again, but a sinus infection.  The unfortunate thing is that I probably permanently altered my equilibrium with all the strep infections.  So, now when I get sick with anything having to do with my sinus' I am dizzy.  So another two week course of antibiotics for my sinus infection.  Today is March 7th, and I am unfortunately going through another round of sinus infection.  I told Mike a few weeks ago that it was about time for me to get sick again, and three days later I did.  This latest fun started February 25th and I will hopefully be feeling better soon.  All of these illness' really make me appreciate my health.  I am glad though that it's me that has been sick and not one of my cute kiddos.  Here's to hoping that Spring will bring on better health!
On a random note.  Eliza has now moved on and now likes not only Curious George, but also Go Diego Go, Little Einsteins, and Dora.  It's silly, but she requests me to sing those songs, especially rocket when I'm putting her to bed.  She loves patting and clapping along with Little Einsteins!  She talks like crazy and will say anything now.  Ben and Hailey are always quizzing her on words and getting her to say new words.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was on Sunday this year, which I really love.  It is such a great opportunity to remind us and teach our kids about the true meaning of Christmas.  Church was just sacrament meeting, so we decided to go to my parent's ward and spend that time with family (also our church is at 1pm, so theirs at 10am was much better).  Their ward did an amazing job, with a mostly musical sacrament meeting.  The spirit was so strong and it was such a good way to spend celebrating Christmas with family. 

As you can see our kids were very spoiled and excited about their presents from Santa.  They must have been good kids!  This year we had our Elf on the Shelf, Elfie, watching over their every move since Thanksgiving.  It was always the fun thing of the morning to find Elfie.  Sometimes I couldn't even find Elfie, but somehow one of my kids would find it within 15 minutes.  Eliza loved Elfie and was always so excited when she found him.  Elfie left Ben, Hailey, and Eliza a note on Christmas Eve saying that they had tried really hard to be good kids, so he would tell Santa to leave them some good presents.

Hailey got a dollhouse bigger than her, and she was so excited.  When she first came down and saw it, she said "wow, is that for me?"  Ben got a helicopter and a wii game, which he was very excited about.  Eliza got a ice cream play-doh set, she loves anything play-doh!  Mike opened up his stocking and he only had one thing in it.  Hailey said, "daddy you must have been well..um..this year." (The cute little thing didn't want to tell her daddy he had been bad.)

We were making a french toast breakfast when we heard the doorbell ring.  Mike and the kids went to go see who it was.  On the porch their was a box that said lift carefully.  Mike carefully picked up the fancy green box and brought it inside.  We carefully opened it and their was a small fish bowl with a beta fish in it!  There were hand warmers all around it and a note.  The note said; "Merry Fishmas, here is your beta fish.  Feed it twice a week, change it's water- it likes bottled water, keep it out of the sun so it doesn't get a sunburn, and give it a name."  It didn't have a name on it so we have no clue who gave it to us.  The note was written by a kid, so it could be either one of Ben's friends or one of Mike's scouts.  The kids were really excited, I was just excited that it wasn't a puppy.  We happily welcomed Bluie Davey Jones Wootton to our family, what a funny Christmas surprise.  A little while later Eliza was playing with her Barbie house, and Ben (in all seriousness) cried out "don't let Bluei see the toilet!!!".  Later when the toilet went missing we asked if anyone had seen it.  Ben had taken it back upstairs to Hailey's room.   He carefully explained to Hailey and Eliza the rules about fish and toilets: "please don't show the fish the fake toilet or he could fake die for the day." 

Ben is obviously still traumatized by his fish dying when he was three.  We got 3 goldfish when Ben was two, the first 2 died fairly soon after we got them.  But, Davey Jones lived for at least a year.  My kids didn't care at all about the fish, but when they had friends over their friends thought he was cool.  Some of his friends dumped in a bunch of food, and who else knows what happened.  But, old Davey Jones died.  Mike thought it would be a good learning experience and had Ben help him flush Davey down the toilet.  Ben still talks about his favorite fish that died and got flushed down the toilet.  The funniest thing after that was that Ben told multiple people that his fish died and went to heaven in the toilet.  It took us a while to explain that the toilet wasn't heaven for fishes!

We headed over to my parents house for dinner and decided to do a pajama dinner.  Dinner was excellent and the kids loved sitting at their table.  We had our traditional fight for the nut.  Our family has been spoiled the last few years.  Mike and Ben got the nut the last three years.  We make a huge bowl of rice pudding and put one shaved almond inside.  Whoever gets the nut is the winner of a darling bear and good luck for a year.  This is a tradition that my Mormor did when she lived with her family in Norway and has been done since.  When Mormor was little they would get a marsipan pig- a bear is a much better prize in my opinion.  I have been trying to get the nut my whole life and I still have never won, but even worse is my dad who has also never had the nut.  I was hopeful this year, but Aly was the nut finder.  We performed our traditional Christmas nativity with the kids doing a great job.  Hailey was Mary and Isabelle was baby Jesus.  You can see in this picture how serious Hailey is taking her job as Mary.  We got even more spoiled by my family.  We got zoo memberships for the year, which I am so excited about!  It was such a wonderful Christmas, I love seeing how excited our kids are about all of it!